Maybe the libraries can put up papers on trading strategies and vehicles such as options, shorts, hedging, structured equity etc. I don't think many of us actually use any of these but it is interesting to read and understand them.

Also, alternative investments such as timber, private equity, LPs, CanRoys, etc. Not recommending these --- just want to learn about them

Use this calculator to find out how much interest you can earn on a Certificate of Deposit (CD). Just enter a few pieces of information and we will calculate your Annual Percentage Yield (APY) and ending balance. Click on the "View Report" button to see a detailed schedule of your CD's balance and interest earned. Unhappy with your current CD rate? Check out Bankrate's exclusive list of the highest-yielding CDs in the United States.

Tracking model portfolios is a worthwhile effort, but as Bill Bernstein, who tracked his Coward Portfolios for many a year conceded, it requires a lot of work. This topic would require a separate sub-topic and a dedicated staff to implement. This forum has only been in existence for one week, so we all will have to patient while we wait for consensus and volunteers.

Personally, I approach all but the simplest calculators with a healthy dose of scepticism. "Black box" solutions, be they calculators, optimizers, or monte carlo analyses require at least some basic understanding of the underlying algorithms driving the numbers, as well as a clear understanding of the limits to which the output can be applied.

The optimal solution, in my humble opinion, is that each "black box" tool we employ be accompanied by a tutorial. These could be written by our forum's mathematicians and investment pros. Remember, with this forum, anything which they could write to this effect would remain their property. This should increase the incentive.

Keep the ideas coming. Many of them will likely only face a delay. This forum has a huge potential for development.

Eric also wrote Personal Finance for Dummies, which is a great start for those at the left end of the learning curve.

shadowrings

PostPosted: Sun Mar 04, 2007 5:42 pm Post subject: Reply with quote

The Complete Idiot's Guide to Personal Finance series is pretty good starters as well as the Dummy's Books.

Just do a search on Amazon on the above title and you'll find complete list of books so far in that series. Last partial listing included books for teens, 20s-30s, and 40s-50s (heard they've added a general 401K book as well but haven't checked).

Gave the 40s-50s book (as well as the Dummy's book) to my brother's fiancee who was almost totally ignorant of anything other than balancing the household only checkbook (ex-spouse kept her as much out of the finance loop as possible before vanishing across the southern border). She's been very impressed with both of them.

The library is becoming a wonderful resource. However, there is very little for the novice investor. Most articles are too advanced for newbies who just need some introduction to subjects such as AA, diversification and the importance of costs. Basically, the M* Diehards was created to help new investors. What is the mission of this site? The site could use a use a sticky post addressing its purpose.

Why are there two links to articles on Asset Allocation?

I don't quite understand the avoidance of "commerical" sites. If they are useful why would there be a problem? What is commerical? Rick Ferri's site with his online book? Eric Hass's Altruist site with its reading room? Bill Schultheis coffeehouse Investor?

How about Travis Morien, Invesopedia, MoneyChimp, and Frank Armstrong. Anyway, thanks for listening.

The library is becoming a wonderful resource. However, there is very little for the novice investor. Most articles are too advanced for newbies who just need some introduction to subjects such as AA, diversification and the importance of costs.

The articles are contributed by our posters. We invite newbies as well as experienced posters to submit articles of interest to the library. And we would be delighted if you submit articles for newbies in any of the topics. We follow a suggestion from one of our readers/posters to order the entries from low to high difficulty. Ranking is also done at our readers suggestion.

Basically, the M* Diehards was created to help new investors. What is the mission of this site? The site could use a use a sticky post addressing its purpose.

I guess that "sticky" should be placed in the main forum....

Why are there two links to articles on Asset Allocation?

Could you please post here the two links to the same subject: Asset Allocation? I will happily correct the error.

I don't quite understand the avoidance of "commerical" sites. If they are useful why would there be a problem? What is commerical?

Barry Barnitz wrote:
Tracking model portfolios is a worthwhile effort, but as Bill Bernstein, who tracked his Coward Portfolios for many a year conceded, it requires a lot of work. This topic would require a separate sub-topic and a dedicated staff to implement. This forum has only been in existence for one week, so we all will have to patient while we wait for consensus and volunteers.

For stuff like tracking portfolios, why re-invent the wheel? As long as the external resource is reliable and free, links like this should probably serve us well:

First, I appreciate all the work that has gone into the Library. As a relative Newbie, I still have trouble intuiting some of the acronyms that have become common parlance. I tried to find 'TAA', and CAGR for instance this AM. I had to look in four of the Library Glossary postings before I found them. I also decided that I need to see a definition of 'Value Premium' - since I have just been winging it for several weeks, assuming I knew what it meant. I could not find it in the various Glossary links.

This is not a complaint about the Library. It's just a bit of venting about the insular nature of these boards, and the inclination toward exclusivity that happens when 'specialists' get together. Maybe I should periodically post a Rant on the two boards, not about using technical terms like 'value premium,' but about the propensity to use acronymns without explanation. I doubt if that will change anything, but I'll feel better.

heyyou wrote:Those Periodic Tables of Returns helped me see the randomness of returns, both relative to one another and positive and negative.

I always get a smile out of seeing a table which is supposed to demonstrate randomness being called "periodic" and wonder if the person who named it thus was being deliberately ironic or didn't know what the word "periodic" meant!

The spreadsheet will not make asset allocation decisions for you, but once you have chosen your target asset allocation, it will compute your current asset allocation, both by major classes (US stocks, foreign stocks, bonds) and subclasses. This makes it easier to determine where to invest new funds, or how much to move when rebalancing.

The spreadsheet can handle funds which are split over multiple asset classes, and can adjust for the different tax treatment of different accounts.

I do try to keep an open mind though.......and see how the sellers of variable annuities are either improving them......or figuring out more devious ways of selling them.

I was pretty negative on immediate annuities also.......until late last year on the old Diehards site.....plus an investor I know who is using them successfully for his given situtation......where I learned that immediate annuities from low cost providers.....may have a place in an investment strategy. I now believe there are certain circumstances where immediate annuities should be used. I base that opinion on posters on the old Diehard site......as well as recent research papers illustrating how low cost immediate annuities can be beneficial.

Given that (1) there does not appear to be a separate thread in the Reference Library devoted to annuities and (2) there now appears to be a growing collection of articles on the subject, I suggest the librarians start a new thread in the Reference Library devoted to annuities.

-Some reasons you may want to invest with Vanguard are here:
link:Why invest with us
(Note: if one does not have access to Vanguard funds, e.g. in their 401k plan, one can still follow this advice (see below*)

-A simple one-stop-shopping approach is to purchase a single "Vanguard Target Retirement" fund:
link: Vanguard Target Retirement Funds
-These funds give you a mix of stocks and bonds that are automatically balanced and adjusted over time as your age increases

-Another simple approach, recommended by Vanguard founder John Bogle, is to invest in a mixture of the following two low-cost index funds:
1. Total Stock Market Index Fund
link: Fund Snapshot
2. Total Bond Market Index Fund
link: Fund Snapshot
-It is often best to hold as much as possible of the Bond Fund in tax-advantaged accounts (e.g. IRA, 401k).

-One may also consider investing a portion in an International Stock Fund, such as:
3. Vanguard Total International Stock Index Fund
link: Fund Snapshot
-John Bogle recommended putting up to 20% of the Stock Fund allocation in such a fund, although he has said that 0% International is fine for most people.

-When splitting your investments among several funds, check the percentages invested in each fund every year or two and consider buying and selling shares as needed to maintain the desired balances

The spreadsheet will not make asset allocation decisions for you, but once you have chosen your target asset allocation, it will compute your current asset allocation, both by major classes (US stocks, foreign stocks, bonds) and subclasses. This makes it easier to determine where to invest new funds, or how much to move when rebalancing.

The spreadsheet can handle funds which are split over multiple asset classes, and can adjust for the different tax treatment of different accounts.

David Grabiner

Thank you David. I just downloaded this, and it is much better than the rudimentary version I had created.

OT: Bogleheads truly live up to their reputation for helpfulness & ingenuity. I love being here!

Some excellent books on retirement focusing on issues such as taxes, mrd (minimum required distributions), inheritance, best ways to withdraw, etc. are I believe:
Ed Slott, The Retirement Savings Time Bomb (he has newer edition, do not know if as good); Retire Secure Pay Taxes Later by James Lange; and The New Rules of Retirement by Robert Carlson. All three authors are CPAs the latter two also attorneys.

gbs wrote:Maybe they call it periodic because the random returns of the same asset classes are shown each year.

It is periodic as far as the asset class labels and random with regard to their returns. Similar with the Periodic table of elements. (http://www.webelements.com/)

gbs

The word "periodic" means "repeating with a regular cycle" and last time I checked regular cycles weren't a feature of randomly fluctuating data. Therefore the term is inappropriate.

As you'll find if you look up any chemistry text book, the "periodic table" is so-named because there are regular trends in the chemical and physical properties of elements which correspond with their position on the periodic table, which is set by the configuration of their electrons. In the case of the periodic table of elements, the term is quite appropriate because there is a definite periodic pattern there.

So calling the table of asset class returns a "periodic table" is either an ironic name for it, like calling a bald man "Curly" or a very fat person "Slim", or the person who coined the phrase actually thought there was a periodic pattern in there, or its a lousy name for it.

Hmmm, it seems most of my posts to the new forum have been about the correct use of language or terminology. We need more posts on the value premium and market efficiency for me to get my teeth into.

I have a problem with the link... let's assume that I have a web site were in order to read content you need to register how would I feel if someone linked trough a technical quirk to content without registration being required?

I'm on the fence. Maybe Barry would like to chime in as I believe he has more experience here

How about (in the Reference Library) maintaining lists (user-edited, a la Wikipedia, but with some quality control) of misprints in the most recent editions of the "standard" Diehard books? I'd imagine that we only need to do this for ca. 20 books...Swedroe, Ferri, Bernstein, Malkiel, Taylor-and-Mel, etc.